Tuesday, March 03, 2015, 2:26 p.m.

Cloyd, Hendrix president, stepping down

LITTLE ROCK  The president of Hendrix College says he is stepping down after more than a decade leading the private college in Conway.

Timothy Cloyd said in a statement that the "time is right" for "fresh leadership." He leaves the post Friday.

“One thing I have learned is that organizations are living, evolving organisms,” he said in the statement. “Twelve years is a reasonable time to run an organization and, during that time, Hendrix has assumed national leadership among private, liberal arts colleges and has successfully completed a major capital campaign."

W. Ellis Arnold III, executive vice president, general counsel and dean of advancement, will serve as acting president during a national search for a successor.

Cloyd was named Hendrix's 10th president in October 2001 after serving as vice president for college relations and development before that.

The college said in a news release that Cloyd first made the announcement at the February board of trustees meeting, during which he also indicated he would return as a professor after a sabbatical.

Cloyd's time leading Hendrix included drawing national attention for its engaged learning programs and being named a U.S. News & World Report "Up and Coming" liberal arts college for five years in a row. The student body and faculty increased by almost 40 percent under Cloyd, and he oversaw the school's completion of a $100 million fundraising campaign.